CHADRON, Neb. -- February 28, 2021 -- For the first time in nine years, Chadron State College men's basketball will play postseason basketball, after qualifying for the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference Tournament on Saturday.
The Eagles finished the regular season at 5-7, all in league play. Because of postponements throughout the conference and the uneven schedules they created, a rating index was used to determine the strength of each team's wins and losses, in order to produce seeding for the championship. CSC finished tied with South Dakota School of Mines, which won the tiebreaker based on each team's success against third-seed Black Hills State University, after tying in several other criteria.
So, CSC will take the eighth and final seed in the tourney, which pits the Eagles against the top seed, No. 5 Colorado Mesa University Mavericks. The matchup is to take place in Grand Junction, Colorado, on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. Per RMAC policy no attendance is allowed at any of the tournament games.
The winner advances to the top remaining seed, out of the four teams which remain on Tuesday night, where the semifinals and championship game will be played. The RMAC Tournament champion receives an automatic bid in the NCAA West Region tourney, which will be located in Golden, Colorado.
When the two teams last met, in Chadron on December 12, the game required two overtime periods to result in a 77-68 win for the Mavericks, who were then ranked No. 22.
The Mesa win was its fourth in an 11-0 start. The Mavs' only loss came on January 30, at Western Colorado, and since then they managed to win seven more games including a win on the road at Colorado School of Mines, then the No. 1 team in NCAA Division II. They finished the season on Saturday at 18-1, all in conference action.
Tuesday's game in Grand Junction will be CSC's second top-five matchup this season, after it played Mines when the Orediggers were ranked fourth.
It will also be the seventh RMAC Tournament in the Eagles men's program history. The others occurred in 1993, 1994, 1999, 2001, 2002, and 2012.
The Eagles may have won the first-ever RMAC Tournament game, at least in the Division II era of the league. The conference did not list a postseason tournament before it officially joined Division II in 1993, and CSC defeated Mines in the first round of that inaugural tourney, 95-83.
Incidentally, Chadron State's semifinal matchup that season was against Mesa, which prevailed 78-62.
On Tuesday, the Eagles will be without big men
Jacob Jefferson, who lost the season to injury in January, and Deion Rhea, who departed the team in December. Jefferson was the team's leading scorer leading up to his injury, while Rhea led the Eagles in both scoring and rebounding against Mesa in December.
Teddy Parham, Jr., now leads the Eagles in scoring, with 15.6 points per game, after pouring in 68 in his last three games.
Deundra Roberson (11.0) and
Marcus Jefferson (10.4) also average double figure scoring.
Marcus Jefferson leads all active players in rebounding and assists.
The game on Tuesday can be viewed on the RMAC Network, and Dave Collins of Double Q Country in Chadron will travel to broadcast live from Grand Junction on 97.5 FM.
